FIRST Overdrive

That's right. The 2008 challenge has been released!!! This year's game resembles a racetrack mixed with Co-Opertition, the game from three or four years ago that involved a large ball. That is only the beginning though. There are also several twists in this year's game.

This year is the first year to feature a unique, "hybrid" operation mode. The hybrid operation is a cross between Autonomous and tele-operated control modes. In hybrid operation, a Robocoach can supervise the robot during autonomous mode by the use of a remote. The robot will receive the Robocoachs signals via an IR (InfraRed) sensor board which is another new addition.

As this diagram shows, the field is set up like a race track this year. It has a start/finish line, guardrails, an overpass, and lanes. It also has four 40" balls, two red and two blue, resting on the overpass. All three alliance robots start in their respective home streches, red and blue.

During hybrid mode, a Robocoach has the power the "supervise" their robot as mentioned above. This means that the Robocoach, with their remote, can tell the robot what they want to be done without doing it for them directly. This means that the robot already has this knowledge and that the Robocoach just tells them when and where to use it.
The Scoring for hybrid mode is as follows:

• Robot crossing the start/finish lines and/or the line dividers -- 2 points
• Robot knocks down one of the TrackBalls -- 8 points

After the 15-second hybrid Mode, the drivers take over and directly control the robot from their alliance stations. During this time, the robots have to try to cross their start/finish lines as often as they can with or without the TrackBalls. They can either go under the overpass with the ball, or toss the ball over it and travel underneath it to the otherside. At the end of the tele-operated period, any TrackBalls that are on top of the overpass are worth bonus points.
The scoring for the tele-operated period is as follows:

• Robot crossing the start/finish line with the TrackBall -- 2 points
• Robot tossing the TrackBall over the overpass -- 8 points
• TrackBall being on top of the of the overpass at the end of the match   -- 12 points

There are a lot of changes this year, including hybrid mode and IR capabilities. One of the changes that is going to be very evident to everyone is that there is no way to be a effective defensive robot. Any way you slice it though, this is going to be a very interesting game and year.

Here are the downloads for the 2008 competition manual: Awards
The Arena
The Game
The Robot
The Tournament

Be sure to catch our team in action at the Detroit Regional, March 13-15 2008, and at the West Michigan Regional, March 20-22 2008.

Team 397, The Knight Riders, would like to say, "Ladies and Gentlemen, start your robots!!!" Good Luck to all the teams.